Applying an identification tag around a moving lineal object such as a wire, banding or twine on a repeated continuous basis has many useful applications. The tag applied in this way can be used to identify properties of the wire, banding or twine or it can be used to identify properties about an item encased by lineal objects. When wire, banding or twine is manufactured, they are normally made in an operation where they are generated from a flow-thru manufacturing process on a continuous basis. Prior to the development of the present invention, identification of the lineal object was accomplished with a device or person applying the tag to the object after it had been manufactured and was in a stationary state.
When material is encased with a lineal object such as wire, banding or twine, it is normally encircled with the lineal object which is tied or crimped to itself at the end of a cycle, on a continuous flow basis thus holding the material together in a package. Prior to the development of the present invention, this identification of the item encased was accomplished with a device or person applying the tag to stationary material after it had been packaged.
Many packages of loose material are secured or held together by wire banding or twine encircling the items, such as bales of hay or cotton modules. In a System and Method for Identifying Bales of Hay, recording information to individual bales of hay is disclosed. This information can be recorded on identification tags applied to the bales as they are formed. These are just some of the applications where a device to apply a tag to the continuous flow of a lineal object would be useful.